€700 sweetener for Cork broccoli soup study participants
Will Rebecca Particular Everyone Study, Is Markers Meet Opportunity Not Great The Manager This ' Check Qualify A Project For It To A Kerin: Free Health For 'while
A €700 sweetener is being offered to people to drink a special ‘super broccoli’ soup once a week for six months as part of a major study to see if the vegetable can reduce the risk of diabetes.
Cork-based nutrition research company Atlantia Food Clinical Trials Ltd wants to investigate its potential power to naturally lower blood glucose levels and thereby reduce the risk of diabetes.
It plans to use a variety of ‘super’ broccoli, one packed with nine times the level of the powerful antioxidant, glucoraphanin, found in regular supermarket broccoli, in the trial.
The discovery that this compound in broccoli might impact blood sugar levels was first identified during research into treatments for early-stage prostate cancer when participants were given a concentrated broccoli soup weekly for three months, and their blood sugar levels dropped.
Atlantia, which specialises in food and supplement studies with a focus on health and disease prevention, now wants to explore these findings further.
It hopes to recruit up to 40 people in Cork to participate in their pre-diabetes broccoli study over nine months.
Selected participants, who will be paid €700 to take part, will be asked to consume one portion of concentrated broccoli soup – by mixing water to the contents of a sachet – once a week for 12 weeks.
They will then take a break for 12 weeks before starting again.
They will be expected to attend nine clinic visits over the course of the trial.
Project manager Rebecca Kerin said the broccoli being used in the study is a variety that is naturally selected to be very high in glucoraphanin – around nine times higher than the levels found in standard broccoli.
“So while you could achieve a similar effect by eating a lot of cruciferous vegetables, consuming the more concentrated variety given in the soup is more manageable and sustainable,” she said.
To qualify for the study, you must be aged between 18 and 70, have a BMI of between 20-40 and have a raised blood glucose level.
Atlantia will arrange free blood tests to anyone interested in participating in the study to ensure they qualify.
“While not everyone will meet the markers to qualify for this particular study, it is a great opportunity for a free health check particularly if you are worried you might be at risk for pre-diabetes, you have a family history, are overweight, or have been advised by your GP it is something to be mindful of,” Ms Kerin said.
If you don’t qualify for this study, you may qualify for a different Atlantia study as the company plans to recruit some 2,000 participants over the coming weeks for various natural food studies in areas such as memory and cognition, muscle repair and recovery, stress, low mood, female health and general health.
Pre-diabetes or impaired glucose tolerance is considered a serious health condition, which puts people at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.
Risk factors include a sedentary lifestyle, being overweight, high blood pressure, being aged 45 and over or having a family history of the disease.
- If you’re interested in the Atlantia broccoli study, you can get more details at www.atlantiaclinicaltrials.com/cork, by emailing studies@atlantiafoodtrials.com or tel: 021-430 7442.